Wrong middle name of a beneficiary or a different person??

chat01

I am an executor of my fathers will for which i have received probate.

He left a pecuniary legacy, the first detailed in his will, to a person I shall refer to as Jane ANNE Doe. ‘Doe’ is our family name, but I have never met this person.

We believe her to be a child his first wife gave birth to which resulted in their divorce, i.e. we think she had an affair, got pregnant, and then they separated/divorced.

My sister and I, the executors, were from a marriage 10 years later and he only ever spoke to my sister once later on his life about this person and what happened.

Anyhow, I managed to track down Jane Doe, and I asked her to send me ID and bank details to confirm her identity etc.

I have received these but they actually detail her as Jane MARY Doe, not Jane ANNE Doe as in the Will.

In the Will she is not described with a relationship or an address, it simply says £xxx to Jane ANNE Doe.

My sister believes my father made a mistake with her middle name, she knows of no other Jane Doe’s in our family, and therefore we should make the payment to her.

I am unsure. I am over cautious, it is my nature. However It does ‘make sense’. As far as we were aware this person was never in my fathers life but he was aware of her existence.

From the documentation I have seen I am happy that she is the person we think she is, but the middle name still does not match the Will.

Thoughts on how best to proceed?

Thank you.

Mojisola

chat01 wrote: »

I am an executor of my fathers will for which i have received probate.

He left a pecuniary legacy, the first detailed in his will, to a person I shall refer to as Jane ANNE Doe. ‘Doe’ is our family name, but I have never met this person.

My sister believes my father made a mistake with her middle name, she knows of no other Jane Doe’s in our family, and therefore we should make the payment to her.

If you and your sister are the residual beneficiaries of the will then it is your inheritance that will be reduced so who is going to complain about giving your half-sister her legacy?

If you want to be very precise, you could say that this legacy fails because of the name difference but give your half-sister the same amount as a gift from your inheritance.

xylophone

your half-sister

Is the OP's father shown as Jane Doe's father on her birth certificate?

This could be the case even if the OP's father were not her biological father, particularly if he and his first wife were still married when she was born.

The OP could check for births of Jane Mary Doe/Jane Anne Doe to see if this throws any light

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

Mistakes do occur with middle names - I have seen this in my family history research.

badger09

xylophone wrote: »

Is the OP's father shown as Jane Doe's father on her birth certificate?

This could be the case even if the OP's father were not her biological father, particularly if he and his first wife were still married when she was born.

The OP could check for births of Jane Mary Doe/Jane Anne Doe to see if this throws any light

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

Mistakes do occur with middle names - I have seen this in my family history research.

And what if he isn't?:cool:

xylophone

And what if he isn't?

It's immaterial to the question of whether or not the legacy is payable to Jane Doe - it was merely a suggestion to assist the OP in his deliberation (that is, is there a Jane Mary Doe and a Jane Anne Doe registered for the relevant dates)?

If there actually is a Jane Anne Doe then it could potentially call Jane Mary Doe's claim into question


If he can find the birth certificate and his father is named, it should settle the question, regardless of the middle name.

All that said, the OP has stated

My sister believes my father made a mistake with her middle name, she knows of no other Jane Doe’s in our family

From the documentation I have seen I am happy that she is the person we think she is,

In which case he should get on and make the payment to this lady (blood relation or not) without any more ado?

newatc

It seems clear to me that your father meant this legacy to Jane Doe and you and your sister should respect his generous wishes which I think reflects well on him and you should be proud of.

happybiker

Birth certificate is indeed the clue needed. It will have the mothers name and date on it. Possibly your fathers name as well. Was the woman named on the cert married to you father at that date?